


in vino veritas

by littlemaple, MayumiSato



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 08:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13454406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemaple/pseuds/littlemaple, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayumiSato/pseuds/MayumiSato
Summary: Alfred and Arthur compete in everything, including in who can deny his feelings for the other for the longest time.





	in vino veritas

**Author's Note:**

> I made a post on tumblr asking people to send Mayumi and I prompts for us to write one scene stories. This is the first one. The prompt, sent by chunruu, was "frenemies at an office party" so here we go!!
> 
> Oh, and in a side note, “in vino veritas” means “in wine, the truth”, which basically means drunk people are sincere.

Alfred Franklin Jones had been the typical golden boy in his youth. Handsome, smart, and socially competent enough to only have gotten one or two enemies throughout his life, he was used to being the center of attention and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it.

He loved to be praised. He loved to have a crowd clapping around him. He loved when people asked him about things that had been ridiculously difficult to achieve and he’d say "guys, it was no big deal"

Yep, he knew from his therapist that he was merely using other people’s approval to try to fill the emptiness within himself, but meh! Who cares! It was fun, it was fruitful, and so he would continue to hunt for compliments throughout his life, trying to excel at everything.

Alfred never did something half-assed. If it was to do something, he wanted to be the best at it or just not do it at all. Whether it was a silly phone game or a job interview, Alfred Franklin Jones always had to be the best and impress others.

As for Arthur Kirkland, namely one of the _one or two_ enemies of Alfred Jones, things were a bit different. For most of his life he lived in the shadow of his older brothers. His brothers were brighter, smarter and stronger than him, and his parents always did their very best to remind Arthur of that. He had two great doctor brothers, a lawyer brother and an actor brother, and what was Arthur going to do to catch up? The Kirkland family didn’t raise weaklings, his father would say, so Arthur should not be an exception.

So he worked his arse out to be someone, to get somewhere. He aimed at the top grades and top schools and he always felt out of breath when he finally achieved things that his brothers seemed to have gotten smoothly and easily. He always felt like he couldn’t catch up, and that feeling haunted him wherever he went, even when he went to America, where he met Alfred Jones, the golden boy, the born-polished diamond.

He hated that guy because he always got everything he wanted and the problem wasn’t that he did so, because Arthur always did get whatever he wanted as well, but the difference was that Arthur was always struggling and Alfred always seemed to be having it easy — and Arthur hated him for it. Arthur hated him with the same hate he had for his brothers; with gripping jealousy.

The difference now was that he wasn’t in _Alfred’s_ shadow, and Arthur refused to fall there. For the moment he found out Alfred had the same goal as he had in that company, he set for destroying Alfred and taking the lead. He would not fall behind and he would not be in anyone’s shadow ever again. It was Alfred’s turn to be in the dark and eat dust and Arthur would not lose to him, ever, in any way.

As for _Alfred_ , the thing that bothered _him_ about Arthur Kirkland was that   _Arthur_  didn’t like him.

They both were on the same team. Therefore, Arthur should consider himself lucky to have someone so talented working alongside him in the sales department. Instead, he treated Alfred with the condescension of an adult dealing with a messy child. That was something Alfred couldn’t take.

As much as Alfred did incredible things, as much as he looked right at Arthur while doing these things, Arthur’s reaction to him were always apathetic. That is, when he wasn’t being disapproving and all grumpy towards Alfred! Urgh, what was up with that guy?

The worst part of that whole mess was that Arthur, he had to admit, was a talented guy. He had such determination and focus on his work that Alfred admired him a lot. They could’ve been friends in other circumstances. Too bad Arthur was a bitter ass dude and definitely not a better employee than Alfred.

And _another_ thing Arthur hated in Alfred Jones was how attractive he was. It was hard to completely hate someone when you got hard thinking about them, and Arthur _hated_ it. It would be so much easier to completely, one hundred percent hate Alfred Jones if he was an ugly scumbag, but he _was_ nice, funny and ridiculously gorgeous, so that complicated things a little bit.

Arthur would not fall for that, though. He wouldn’t fall for those blue eyes of his, or those golden locks of his. He would avoid them like the plague, and he would hate Alfred as much as he could, and that ought to do it.

It was hard to avoid Alfred when their office decided to do those office parties, though. The whole office was there, and some bosses popped out here and there, so Arthur couldn’t avoid attending them — he wouldn’t give Alfred the chance to buy his way to the top with those charming smiles of his, no. Arthur would be there to push him back and steal his spot on the sun with his wit remarks and foxy smirks. That was the goal.

Still, he was glad the office parties had drink tables because he couldn’t be able to stand them otherwise. 

* * *

 

Alfred and Arthur’s popularity among the women in the office was something Alfred secretly competed with Arthur about. Arthur didn’t even notice such competition existed, since he was quite distracted about women’s interest in him, but Alfred knew very well that he and Arthur were the most desired bachelors in the building.

To be fair, he couldn’t blame the women who preferred Arthur, as much as he wanted them to prefer him. Arthur had that sexy accent, those green eyes that seemed to grasp you and, damn, that guy looked fine in a suit. Not to mention the fact that he was extremely smart, responsible and creative. Alfred was not gay, but if he was, he'd totally go after Arthur too.

He could imagine a number of scenarios involving him and Arthur and some had very gay content. Just... hypothetically, of course. At parties like that, for example, he could imagine he and Arthur drinking a little more than usual, and perhaps making out a bit in the restroom.

He knew that it wasn’t something that would happen, since he wasn’t gay and Arthur probably wasn’t too, but hey! That _might_ happened if they were. And meh, Alfred was bored out of his mind, having to smile and talk about trivial things with a bunch of coworkers, just to make good impressions. So maybe that would be more fun than what was actually happening that evening.

Alfred was obviously wrong about one thing, though. Arthur was gay. He was really, completely, totally gay. He _did_ know about the women who had crushes on him, he wasn’t blind, he just wasn’t interested. He also knew about the two guys in the office that had crushes on him, and he was very much interested, so he obviously went out with both of them for flings, but it didn’t last. They were lacking something and that something was a thing Arthur wouldn’t admit he even wanted.

And just thinking about it made him angry, so he went there to fix himself a drink and he groaned loudly when he saw that the thing, that is… not _the thing_ , but Alfred Jones was standing close by.

“Jones.” he said with a glare, moving towards the table, “If you’ll excuse me…”

“Hey, Kirkland. What’s the hurry?” Alfred smiled, purposely putting himself between Arthur and the table. "Where's my _good evening, how are you_?"

“I don’t know, where is mine?” Arthur rolled his eyes, “Why don’t you go kiss some arse and let me get myself a drink, huh? Shoo, shoo!”

Arthur was like that. For some reason, he greatly enjoyed teasing Alfred. Alfred, in turn, teased him back and they went on forever with it.

“How about another competition today?” Alfred suggested with a big smile, ignoring everything Arthur had said. “We could do a dance contest.”

Arthur eyed Alfred and he almost agreed just for the sake of winning (because he knew he would), but then he sighed. “Do you see anyone else dancing? If you’d like to go embarrass yourself in front of your bosses, please be my guest, but I’m not interested in doing the same.”

Alfred grimaced in disappointment. Awww. Arthur could be kind of dull sometimes.

“Hm. Then, how about a competition to see which of us can kiss more women at this party?” Alfred proposed, raising his index finger with a cheerful smile.

Arthur scoffed.

“You know I’m not interested in women. Although, I _could_ win that one. I don’t want to hurt any feelings, though, so I’ll have to pass.” he said, and then he slightly pushed Alfred out of the way with his shoulder to finally reach the bottles and glasses on the table, fixing himself a glass of scotch.

Alfred leaned his back on the table, glancing at the different bottles on it and checking if there was anything there worth drinking. Alfred has always been more of a fan of sodas than of beers and whiskeys.

So Arthur wasn’t interested in women, huh? That was no surprise.

"You're too focused on work. Don’t you ever think about sex and romance?” Alfred asked, tilting his head a little to the side and giving Arthur a long look.

Arthur scoffed again, then laughed and took a sip of his drink.

“I not only _think_ about that,” he answered, and when Alfred raised his eyebrows in confusion, Arthur also raised his (slightly higher), “You do know I’m gay, right?”

Alfred blinked, letting his jaw drop slightly.

“Do you mean like ‘happy’ or ‘I like guys’? Either way, I didn’t know about that and, honestly, the former would surprise me more.”

Arthur frowned, then rolled his eyes.

“First, fuck you. Second, I literally have a pride flag on my desk? How… We work in the same office for almost two years and it never occured to you? Wow. You’re even more dense than you let show.”

It was not that Alfred had never suspected that. He just didn’t want to jump to conclusions. For some reason, he felt a little agitated to think that there was a tiny chance that Arthur would be attracted to him.

“Uh, you know...!” he exclaimed nervously, taking a glass of wine and drinking it all at once. “I thought you were just an ally of the community!”

“Yes, of course,” Arthur sighed. And then he drinked a bit more of his whiskey. He couldn’t believe Alfred had never realized that. It was so obvious, and Arthur was so open about his sexuality — to those who asked about it, that is. “I mean… seriously? You’ve never noticed? I literally went on dates with Antônio and Lukas and people wouldn’t shut up about it? What kinds of games were you playing on your phone that you didn’t notice it?”

Alfred didn’t want to pay attention when Arthur started to get a little too close to other guys. He felt a little upset when he saw Kirkland's attention being diverted from him, who was always fighting for it, to a bunch of lame dudes who couldn’t compete with Arthur at anything.

"Well, you know. The same as you. I was trying to beat YOUR score.” He answered casually, shrugging. "B-besides, I don’t pay that much attention to your love life, okay?” he tried to say to disguise the clear interest he was showing about that topic by getting another glass of wine and averting his eyes. "I-I'm pretty popular too!”

“Unfortunately, I’m aware of that.” was what Arthur answered. It was followed by a brief sigh, so he quickly finished his drink and fixed another one to make sure Alfred wouldn’t notice the slight blush on his cheeks. “I mean, it’s really annoying when some people in the office won’t stop talking about you when all I want to do is finish my work as fast as possible.”

Alfred couldn’t help the grin forming on his face as he heard it. In vino veritas indeed.

"Oh, you feel uncomfortable when people say they're interested in me?" he asked, delighted.

“Well, yes, but not in the sense that you’re thinking, Jones.” Arthur was quick to answer. A bit too quick, perhaps. He took his glass and held it as he looked around the room, avoiding Alfred’s eyes, “I don’t like to hear people talking about you, unless they are speaking ill of you, in which case I’d happily join the conversation… but those kinds of gossip are only distracting and they do bother me.”

"I wish I could believe that you really despise me." Alfred admitted, picking up a bottle of champagne to pour a glass for  himself. He needed a lot of alcohol to be able to seem casual in that conversation. Also, he was seeing that Arthur was drinking a lot too and he couldn’t miss a competition. "That would make it easier for me to keep my expectations low when it comes to you."

He drank the glass of champagne in just a few seconds.

Arthur raised his eyebrows, his glass halfway to his mouth. He eyed Alfred suspiciously. “What are you talking about?”

"If I thought you hated me, I wouldn’t ever think something like, ‘I wonder what it would be like to press this guy against the wall and kiss the hell out of him.’ This kind of thing.” Alfred sighed. He felt like his body was a little lighter. Maybe too light. It was almost as if he could get off the ground. “It's much worse to have to keep wondering ‘does he really hate me or is he just trying to contain his attraction for me?’.”

Arthur choked on his drink. He almost dropped his glass in the process, coughing and gasping and having his face become completely red in embarrassment. When he finally got himself together again, he stared at Alfred in absolut shock and confusion. “I’m… _what?”_ was all he managed to say.

"Aren’t you going to have more drinks?" Alfred asked, noting that Arthur had been drinking the same glass for a while. Heh. Victory for Alfred, in that case. "Well, I'm not gay, but I'm just saying that if you really hated me, I wouldn’t even imagine that sort of thing.”

That question implied a competition and Arthur never said no to a competition, so of course he poured himself some more alcohol. Not to mention that he really did need some more because nothing Alfred was saying was making any sense at all. “I don’t understand how those things relate. Are… are you drunk? You can’t be drunk, you only had two glasses of wine and champagne. Did you hit your head? Did you burn out your only too neurons?”

“Three glasses! Two of wine and one of champagne!” Alfred corrected. He would never admit to Arthur that he was already a bit drunk because, well, it would be kind of embarrassing to admit openly that he had no experience with alcohol. Alfred usually had experience in everything. “I'm just saying that, I don’t know, that though I'm not gay... I feel this sexual tension between us. It must be our testosterone or something.”

Arthur stared at him for a very long second. “I don’t know how to break this to you, but that’s a very gay thing to say.”

“No, it's not.” Alfred complained wistfully, leaning his head on Arthur's shoulder. Which was not something gay but strategic. He was dizzy and didn’t want to fall face first to the ground. “It would only be gay if there was any chance of it happening... However, that’s not gonna happen... Because you don’t you feel attracted to me, right?” Alfred couldn’t stop the last sentence from coming out like the complain of a spoiled child. "You taste in men is so bad, Kirkland. So bad…”

Now that was true. No doubt Arthur liked Alfred. He couldn’t say that, though. As much as having Alfred so close was almost too much for Arthur to bear. Alfred _was_ heavy, but also Arthur’s feelings and hormones were all over the place because, oh, god, oh god Alfred Jones was attractive as hell and his breathing against Arthur’s skin was too much... Arthur patted him awkwardly on the back, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Now, you almost sound like you _want_ me to feel attracted to you,” he forced a laugh, “Is this the wine speaking? Didn’t know _you_ were attracted to _me!”_

Alfred laughed. Then, he laughed a little more just in case. Then a little bit more, while he thought of what to say, after laughing so hard for so long.

“No, no. I wouldn’t feel attracted to you before you felt attracted to me, duh!” He said, shaking his head. "Do you think I would lose to you in that?"

“Oh god,” Arthur said, and then he laughed too. A rich, loud laugh he hadn’t laughed in so long. He laughed so much, and he was so embarrassed, some tears formed in the corner of his eye, “you are _so_ attracted to me. That’s… surprising.”

“What are you talking about?” Alfred grunted, rubbing his face against Arthur's shoulder. The scent of his cologne was so, so good. "You're the one who seems to be attracted to me, judging  by how much you're talking about attraction. Just, please, tell me ALREADY that you are attracted to me.” he groaned , wrapping his arms around Arthur. “You big dummy.”

“Ugh, you are so stupid…” Arthur rolled his eyes, hesitantly but surely placing his arms around Alfred as well, holding his breath when he could sniff the smell of Alfred’s shampoo, “As if I’d admit something like that before you do. I won’t lose to you.”

By then the whole room was turning into a mixture of colored spots to Alfred, and he felt like throwing up just by opening his eyes. Wow. He was really weak to alcohol.

"I don’t feel good," he admitted reluctantly, hugging Arthur a little stronger for comfort.

“What do you mean by that?” Arthur asked, his nose against Alfred’s soft locks. When Alfred groaned and hugged him even tighter, Arthur kindly tried to push Alfred away, “Wait, are you feeling sick? Oh, don’t you dare throw up on me!”

"I-I don’t need your help.” Alfred grunted, even though Arthur had not offered it in the first place. He was feeling a little annoyed to have exposed a less cool side of his personality to Arthur Kirkland.

Putting his hands on the table, Alfred tried to lean and walk to the restroom across the room, but accidentally ended up pulling in the towel, letting a bunch of glasses fall to the floor, tripping over them and almost falling to the floor as well. If it wasn’t for somebody holding him from behind, he’d have cut himself all over.

“Jones, are you okay? Oh, god, you could’ve hurt yourself!” Arthur was saying, and there was worry in his voice. Alfred was too heavy and Arthur was having trouble holding him. Still he did his best, “Okay, c’mon… let’s take you to the restroom. You need to wash your face and sit down. You’re so pale…”

Arthur looked truly gallant like that. Holding his face, asking if he was okay and then shouting for him to say something. Okay, that didn’t sound very gallant in theory, but it was in practice! It must have been Arthur's English charm in action. Alfred was not paying much attention to what he was saying. He could only think of how well his voice sounded and wondered how well it would sound in other contexts... He wrapped his arms around Arthur's neck, looking right into his mouth. It looked so interesting at the moment. Alfred was slowly leaning towards it, examining it more and more closely until...

He fainted. Alfred fainted. Arthur wasn’t strong enough to hold him when he was unconscious, and fortunately the people who had been watching them hurried up to help Alfred. One of his friends said he could take Alfred home, and while they waited for the taxi, Arthur quickly wrote a small note, which he placed on Alfred’s pocket. “ _I’m admitting defeat now: I do feel attracted to you. There. Hope you’re happy. Also hope you’ll admit the same once you’re not drunk and capable of thinking straight (or rather, bi-ly). The only reason why I am allowing you to win this time is because you’re a cute drunk. Do not think you won this because you’re better. You won because I let you._ _And because I like you._ ”

* * *

 

Alfred couldn’t remember exactly what he and Arthur had talked about the night before, but good lord. He must have drank a lot during that talk, to be hangover like that. He probably made a fool of himself in front of Arthur. Such a terrible mistake!

He spent the day depressed, thinking how horrible and unfair it was that he looked like an idiot right in front of Arthur. After spending so much time feeling bad for himself, he decided to wash his suit from the night before to distract his mind for a while and, then, found the note left by Arthur.

The feeling of his heart racing with every word, his heated face and a silly grin spreading across his face, made Alfred reach a realization in record time.

“ _What I’m feeling right now is so not-straight_ ”.

And you know what? If Arthur also felt totally non-straight feelings for him, he didn’t mind having his own totally gay feelings at all.

Besides, it was good to win over Arthur in ANY context.


End file.
